


Third Sunday in June

by romanticalgirl



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is...
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-16
Updated: 2010-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-23 11:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/249757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/pseuds/romanticalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are jobs more important than rock star</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third Sunday in June

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://inlovewithnight.livejournal.com/profile)[**inlovewithnight**](http://inlovewithnight.livejournal.com/). <3

  
It’s the café where he played his first official gig, somewhere buried in the streets of downtown Chicago. They don’t do live performances anymore and so it’s just like any other shop anywhere, another Starbucks in everything but name. Still, it’s off the beaten path enough that the only people that come here would have no idea who he is, no matter that the place itself played a pivotal role.

He’s not surprised that Pete’s already sitting at one of the tables, huddled under his hoody, fingers flying over his phone keyboard, sunglasses on and the largest cup size on the menu probably half empty in front of him. William orders his own coffee before he sits down across from Pete and kicks his foot. “Hey."

“About time.”

“You’re early.”

“You’re late.”

“I’m on time.”

“Same thing.” Pete smiles though he still hasn’t looked up from his phone. “And don’t give me that bullshit about how you were busy.”

“We can’t all afford nannies.”

“Hell, I can’t afford a nanny.”

William snorts a laugh and takes a sip of his coffee.

“No, seriously,” Pete continues. “They’re expensive. And you have to behave in front of them. It sucks.”

“I’m sure I feel sorry for you…oh, wait. No. No, I don’t.” The coffee’s hot and strong, sharper than he likes, but it makes his nerve endings jolt a little where he thought they’d gone into hibernation. “We’ve reached the terrible twos.”

Pete sets his phone down and then changes his mind, tucking it into his pocket. William hides a smile, knowing paranoia has its cause with Pete. “And are they?”

“Aptly named? Oh, yes.” He takes another drink and makes a face. “Though several friends and complete strangers who have children assure me that it doesn’t end at two. In fact, it apparently goes on until puberty and I’m going to rue the day I had a girl for the rest of my life.”

“Wow. Strangers are _awesome_ , aren’t they?”

“A woman came up to me the other day while I was talking to Nick, pointed to Genevieve and told me that I was going to have to worry about every penis on the block.”

Pete nearly chokes, coughing through the swallow of coffee. “What’d you say to that?”

“I told her that I wouldn’t if she grew up to be a lesbian.”

Pete laughs this time, shaking his head. “You’re an instigator, Beckett.” He tugs off a bite of some pastry he has hidden in a small serving bag and chews methodically. “Seriously, though. How did we ever end up as parents?”

“The abject failure of modern medicine and latex technology.” He turns the bag and pulls off a piece of Pete’s marble pound cake for himself. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you. She’s amazing.”

“I know, right?” Pete grins, blatantly infatuated and happy. “I mean, he’s the grumpiest little dude. He could be a dwarf in Snow White, he’s got it down so good. But he’s so smart and funny and just…everything.”

“Yes.” William smiles as well, knowing he’s probably a mirror of Pete’s beaming look. “She says things so seriously, as if she were wiser than all of us put together. Which, given some of my friends, is not a stretch. But she has this way about her. This distinct air that says ‘you are all ridiculous and I can’t believe I have to put up with you to get a bowl of Cheerios’. It’s amazing. Such disdain.”

“That. Dude, I’m used to that. I toured with Patrick for eight years.” Pete takes another sip of coffee and sighs. “I look at him and think he’s the one thing I can’t fuck up, right? I mean, I can. Exponentially. But I’m trying like fuck not to. And he just wants to know everything.”

“What’s this? What’s that? Why? Where? Can I? Why not?” William steals another piece of pound cake. “She is Princess of Questions, determined to understand the universe before her third birthday. The world should bend to her whims, and she wants to know why she cannot have a tiger, a unicorn and a castle replete with moat.” He’s quiet for a moment, watching Pete’s eyes, knowing the brain behind them a little too well. “And if you get her any of those things, I will tell Gabe about the thing.”

“You would _not_.”

“I would. I have nowhere to store a tiger.”

Pete eyes him suspiciously then shrugs. “Unicorns are hard to find anyway.”

“You know Mikey _Way_.” William smiles, giving Pete his best impression of the subject of discussion. “The only way you need to find a unicorn.”

“True.” Pete nods. “But as far as anyone knows, he’s being kept alive in the studio, purely by the beef jerky and Slurpees Frank and Ray slip through the barbed wire Gerard’s put up around everything.”

“You guys and your weird kinks.” William laughs and leans back in his chair. It’s an off-time, and the shop is fairly quiet. Just behind Pete is where the stage used to be, and William can almost see a ghost of himself, so determined to succeed and completely innocent of what’s to come, where he is now. “You know, it’s strange.”

“My kinks? Yeah, I got that from you calling them weird.”

“No. Well, yes, but not that. I never planned on being a father. I mean, certainly not this early. And yet…I can’t imagine life without her. This life. My life. Now.” He knows he’s smiling, can’t help it. Even when he looks at his life and wonders - how he got here, what happened when he was so smart, so careful, so determined – it’s never with regret. “I mean, she’s amazing. I see everything with different eyes now.”

“Yeah. It’s his world, not mine. Suddenly all that shit that I thought didn’t matter or wasn’t worth my time is shit he’s inheriting from me.” He shrugs. “I mean, I can’t make my dick pictures disappear, but I can help earthquake victims and people without water.”

“On the grander scale, I think what you’re doing is far more important than dick pictures.”

“Yeah,” Pete nods. “But the dick pictures are more embarrassing and most likely to come back to haunt me. And him.”

“At least you only denied he existed before he was born and Ashlee was showing. No matter what my intentions, it’s quite likely she’s going to take exception to being called ‘Wikipedia nonsense’.”

“Yeah, on a scale of one to really fucked up…” Pete trails off, laughing when William flips him off. “Face it, man. No matter what we do, they’re going to grow up and hate us. They’ll rebel by being clean-cut, straight-A students and Republicans and shit. They’ll listen to horrible music and go to pep rallies."

“Oh, yes. He’ll be a quarterback and she’ll be a cheerleader and student body president.”

“King and Queen of the prom.”

William buries his head in his hands. “Stop. God, stop. You’re killing me.”

“They’re going to get married and have two-point-five kids, a dog and a house in the suburbs. They’ll have a Hummer and refuse to recycle.”

“You want us to be _related_?” William looks up, his eyes wide in horror. “Being my _boss_ isn’t enough for you?”

“Fucker.” Pete kicks him under the table and smiles around his coffee cup. “Your daughter’s gonna call me _Dad_.”

“Just remember I have far more stories about you I can tell your son than you have about me to tell my daughter.”

“True,” Pete laughs. “And Gabe’s got enough stories on both of us to make them completely lose respect for us.”

“You really think they respect us?”

“For now,” he nods with a sigh. “But only because we still buy them toys.”  



End file.
